There are periods on the mountain when you exist between living and dying, sometimes for days. I went through that with my brother on Nanga Parbat. It is very difficult, but it is the most intense experience. And always after such experiences, when I was back among people, I felt I had been reborn.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the profound experiences of life and death during extreme challenges in mountaineering, leading to a sense of renewal.
Reinhold Messner describes the intense struggle between life and death he experienced while climbing Nanga Parbat with his brother. These moments, although harrowing, brought him a sense of rebirth and a deeper appreciation for life once he returned to the company of others. This reflects on how facing overwhelming challenges can lead to personal transformation and a renewed perspective on existence.
In practice
In a motivational speech at a climbers' conference, emphasizing the growth that comes from overcoming near-death experiences.
I became famous for the fact that I would break many, many limits. People said, 'He does all these crazy things.' But oddly it was a crazy thing only because scientists and climbers said, 'Everest and the 8,000-meter peaks without oxygen - impossible. Messner is becoming sick in his head.'
A 30-year-old rock climber is an old man. At 40, one is in the middle of his high-altitude power. At 50, a crosser of deserts is at his best age. But at 60, each of us is out of the game.
I think my cultural work is more important than the adventures I did. The adventures are not important for human beings. It's the conquering of the useless.
In mountaineering, there is not only the activity, but the philosophy behind it. Some say a moral, but I am against that because all morality is dangerous.
I was the first man to climb the world's 14 tallest peaks without supplementary oxygen, but I never asked how high I would go, just how I would do it.
In my state of spiritual abstraction, I no longer belong to myself and to my eyesight. I am nothing more than a single narrow gasping lung, floating over the mists and summits.
The person who runs away exposes himself to that very danger more than a person who sits quietly.
If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated suffering.
We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced
I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember.
What do you have to fear? Nothing. Whom do you have to fear? No one. Why? Because whoever has joined forces with God obtains three great privileges: omnipotence without power, intoxication without wine, and life without death.
In my sport, the quick are too often listed among the dead
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